Your toddler wants to be independent, but the world can be a scary place. Just having you close gives him the confidence to know he can check back when he needs to. This secure feeling doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process called attachment and it starts when your child is an infant and continues to strengthen as he grows.

Sroufe, L.A. (2002). From infant attachment to promotion of adolescent autonomy: Prospective, longitudinal data on the role of parents in development. In J.G. Borkowski & S.L. Ramey (Eds.), Parenting and the child